Visionary US Astrophysicist Eugene Parker, Namesake of Sun-Touching Probe, Has Died

The mathematical prediction that charged particles streamed from stars in a solar wind was met with disbelief before it was eventually vindicated by Eugene Parker, who died at the age of 94.

The field of heliophysics, the science of understanding the Sun and its interactions with Earth and the solar system, including space weather, was laid down by a visionary who was named Parker.

He was the first person to witness the launch of the NASA solar probe named after him.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement that they were sad to learn that one of the great scientific minds and leaders of our time had passed. The University of Chicago said that he died Tuesday.

The dean of the Physical Sciences Division at the University of Chicago said thatGeneParker was a legendary figure in our field and his vision of the Sun and the solar system was way ahead of his time.

Eugene Parker died on May 30th. Scott Olson of scottolson.com is in North America.

After earning a degree in physics from Michigan State University and a PhD from Caltech, he taught at the University of Utah before moving to UChicago in 1955.

He began studying the Sun's corona and found that it should produce a supersonic flow of particles off the surface.

The idea was met with skepticism.

The first reviewer on the paper said that the author should go to the library and read up on the topic before writing a paper about it.

His idea was only published in the Astrophysical Journal when Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar realized he could not find a flaw in the math and overrode the objections of both of the reviewers.

The solar wind theory was proved correct in 1962 when NASA's Mariner II flew to Venus.

Scientists know that solar wind protects the planets from harmful radiation, but at the same time it can disrupt communications on Earth when solar flares occur.

Small solar explosions that occur all over the Sun are responsible for its superheated corona. The corona is hotter than the surface, a fact that could not be explained by known physics at the time.

He won numerous awards for his research, including the US National Medal of Science, the Kyoto Prize, and the American Physical Society medal for exceptional achievement in research.

The director of NASA's heliophysics division said that anyone who knew Dr.Parker knew he was a visionary.

The solar probe was launched in the summer of 2018, circling the Sun closer than any previous craft.

It has already sent back a lot of data that will lead to new discoveries about space weather and the existence of a long theorized zone where the Sun's radiation vaporizes all Cosmic Dust.

Agence France-Presse